A dump truck includes a dump body (or bed) for receiving material therein. Typically, the body can be raised by a hydraulic system so as eject the material from the bed at an appropriate time. Thereafter, the body can be lowered so that additional material may be loaded therein.
During certain weather conditions, the material in the body has a tendency to adhere to the contact surfaces of the body (e.g. during cold weather conditions) thereby resisting ejection of the material from the bed. To overcome this problem, it is known to provide a duct system within the body for receiving a flow of exhaust generated by the truck engine so that the flow of exhaust may be passed through the body, thereby heating the contact surfaces. Examples of such heated-body systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,974,997 by Parsely et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,656 by Kauk et al, the disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference, to the extent not inconsistent herewith. By providing heat to the body in the aforesaid manner, the tendency of the material to adhere to the contact surfaces of the body during freezing weather is reduced.
Recently, stricter environmental regulations have been passed. The new regulations will require enhanced filtering of particulates via a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). The DPF traps particulates with a filter. When the filter becomes full, an additional burner activates to burn off the particulates at a higher temperature than that of the exhaust under normal operating conditions.
When the DPF activates (known as the “regeneration” cycle, or “regen” for short), then the exhaust gas increases from the normal 500-900 degrees Fahrenheit to as high as 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature can weaken or damage an aluminum dump body. It can also damage the paint on a steel dump body.
Attempts to address this problem have included a plastic liner to line the dump body. In practice, this has limited effectiveness, since material may undesirably adhere to the plastic liner under certain conditions. An alternative attempt to address this issue includes a separate fuel-powered heater to heat the dump body. This has the disadvantage of extra weight and complexity for an additional heat-generating system, as well requiring additional fuel for supplying the additional heat-generating system. Therefore, what is needed is the ability to heat the dump body of a truck having a diesel particulate filter, without the aforementioned disadvantages.